By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

AUBURN – More than half of all property owners could see values rise 50 percent, based on a citywide revaluation.

That will mean tax increases of as much as $2,000 for some, but officials are warning that it’s too early to begin figuring tax bills.

“What we want people to pay attention to is the value of their property,” said City Assessor Cheryl Dubois. “If that’s wrong, we want to know about it.”

City assessors will begin mailing notices to about 7,000 Auburn residential property owners this week. They should begin hitting mailboxes early next week.

It’s not a bill, Dubois said. Property owners won’t get a bill based on the new values until next summer.

Each notice will include a detailed description of the property and a new assessed value. Dubois and her staff are prepared to meet with taxpayers throughout November to explain the valuation and how the city arrived at the new value. Changes will be made if there are errors.

The city has set up a special phone number, 333-6640, to answer questions and to schedule hearings. Values for the entire city will be available by next week at the assessor’s office in Auburn Hall, at the Auburn Public library and on the city’s Web site.

Going up

Overall, the revaluation will increase property value citywide by about $500 million, to $1.8 billion. It’s meant to even out property values across the city, not increase revenues. Dubois said her estimates assume the city will keep the same $40 million budget.

Under the old values, that’s $30.76 per $1,000 of property value. That rate would go down to about $22 per $1,000 after the revaluation.

Three-quarters of all property owners, at least 5,200 taxpayers, will see their values increase more than 50 percent. For a home currently valued at $86,000, that could mean a property tax increase of $200 to $2,100.

That’s the number most people will focus on, Dubois said. She wishes they wouldn’t.

“The most important thing now is make sure we have the value of their property right,” she said. “Everything comes out of that, especially the tax rate and the tax bill.”

The city began the revaluation in May 2002. Assessors have been inside 80 percent of the homes in the city to appraise them. She assumes the remaining 20 percent are overvalued and hopes the property owners will contact the city this month. That should bring those values down.

There are other unknowns. The current estimated value of $1.8 billion does not have firm figures for personal property, such as business equipment and furniture. Those numbers won’t be included in the city’s value until April 2006. They typically make up 15 to 20 percent of the city’s overall value.

“And we don’t know what kind of support we’ll get for education or transportation from the state,” Dubois said. Questions about state revenues will be answered when the city sets its budget in June 2006.

“And there is still commercial construction going on that will be included in the mix,” Dubois said. “So there are a lot of ways that property tax mill rate can change.”

The tax rate is the one yardstick most taxpayers care about, however. That’s why it’s being included in the notices, according to Assistant City Manager Laurie Smith.

“This is just one step in figuring out our taxes, and the tax bill is way at the other end – like step 10 or so,” Smith said. “I admit, I’m one of those people that likes to skip ahead to the end of the story and see how it comes out. But we can’t do that here. We need to go through the whole process and see where we are next spring when we get there.”

Copy the Story Link